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BEIT UMAR CHECKPOINT, West Bank, Nov 26 (Reuters) � A Palestinian taxi driver, his keys confiscated by Israeli soldiers at an army checkpoint, looked with weary eyes for help from an Israeli woman observing the scene.

Neta Efroni, a retired television director, belongs to "Machsom (Checkpoint) Watch", a group of Israeli women who monitor soldiers at checkpoints and try to persuade them to smooth the way for Palestinians hoping to pass.

Trying to help the stranded taxi driver, described by the army as suspicious, Efroni turned to the soldier and told him: "The driver didn't understand you."

The soldier, speaking in even tones, replied:� "He understood me.�� We will give the keys back in two hours."

Unlike most human rights organisations helping Palestinians, Machsom Watch is an all-Israeli group of nearly 200 women, many of them in their 60s, who converse freely and comfortably with soldiers.

"It's a peculiar relationship between the soldiers and us, being Israeli women who can be friends of their mothers or their grandmothers.�� They can't just push us away," said Yehudit Elkana, who served in Israel's army in 1952.

Israel has kept Palestinians under tight travel restrictions during a three-year-old uprising in the Gaza Strip and West Bank and says checkpoints are necessary to prevent attacks on Jewish settlements and Israeli cities.

Palestinians say they are a form of collective punishment on civilians not involved in militant activities.�� The taxi driver stopped at the Beit Umar checkpoint got his keys back as promised after what the army said was a security check.

HUMILIATION OF PALESTINIANS

Machsom Watch says its numbers are increasing, a reflection of growing public criticism in Israel over tough military measures against Palestinians.

Israel's biggest newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, profiled the group a week after the tabloid featured an unprecedented joint interview with four former security chiefs who attacked the government's hard line in the West Bank and Gaza.

"The roadblocks spawn so much hate...(Palestinian life) is impossible, with the daily humiliation and arbitrariness faced at checkpoints," said Rachel Freudenthal, a college history lecturer who volunteers for Machsom Watch.

"What we are doing is horrible, not just for Palestinians...Misconduct (by soldiers) translates into misbehaviour in society, and it is ruining us," said Rina, who declined to give her family name, after watching a soldier order a Palestinian to lift his shirt in a search for weapons.

Machsom Watch began in Jerusalem with a few volunteers four months after the outset of the Palestinian uprising in 2000.

Two months ago, the group expanded to Tel Aviv with some 70 more women volunteering to monitor checkpoints in the central and northern West Bank.

Jewish settlers have called the women "traitors" who help "terrorists".�� But the women partly blame Israeli policies for Palestinian attacks.

"As long as there is occupation, there is a bad seed producing a rotten situation."

WOMEN'S LIVES TRACE HISTORY OF ISRAEL

Most Machsom Watch volunteers grew up in socialist youth movements, entrenched in the Zionist ideals of the early days of Israel before it seized the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the 1967 Middle East War.

Many served in the army before the Israeli occupation.

"We didn't really know (Palestinians) were there," said Freudenthal, who was raised on a kibbutz, or collective farm, in central Israel.

On daily Machsom Watch patrols � about once a week for each volunteer � women speak with Palestinians and document their hardships on videotapes and published reports distributed to the Israeli media.

At a roadblock near Bethlehem, Murad Karaja, a 28-year-old Palestinian doctor, was waiting for a ride to Jerusalem's Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital, where he was to start a new job.

"Who are you?" a surprised Karaja asked the women.

A smile crept across his face as they voiced their opposition to the barrier blocking his journey.